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[Typos are Nizkor's.]
The Zundel Affair
Manuel Prutschi
Introduction
On November 18, 1983, Mrs. Sabina Citron of the Canadian Holocaust
Remembrance Association went before a justice of the peace to swear
out charges against Ernst Zundel under the "false news" section of
Canada's Criminal Code.[1] This section makes it a crime to produce
and disseminate wilfully material which is false, known to be false,
and damaging to a public interest. The action began as a private
complaint; however, the Crown took the case over in January 1984. By
the time of the preliminary hearing in June, the indictment involved
two separate charges: (1) the publication of a four-page letter
entitled "The West, War and Islam" advancing the notion of a
conspiracy by Zionists, bankers, communists and Freemasons to control
the world; (2) the publication of a 30-page pamphlet entitled "Did
Six Million Really Die?" stigmatizing the Holocaust as a "colossal
piece of fiction and the most successful of deceptions."[2] The Crown
also specified the affected public interest as that of social and
racial tolerance.
Ernst Zundel was already familiar to the Jewish community as a
hatemonger. Moreover, government officials, both federal and
provincial, had become aware of him and had explored various legal
avenues long before criminal charges were actually laid. The Canadian
Holocaust Remembrance Association had played a significant role in
the imposition of an interim mail ban on November 13, 1981, a
prohibitory order that was repealed almost a year later.[3] Mrs.
Citron's group, as well as other Jewish organizations, had also
pressed the attorney general of Ontario, Roy McMurtry, to prosecute
Zundel under Canada's 1970 anti-hate law, which makes it a crime to
advocate genocide or wilfully to promote hatred against an
identifiable group as defined by race, colour, ethnicity or
religion.[4] McMurtry was sensitive to Jewish concerns, but hesitated
in pressing charges because he feared that some of the provisions in
the Criminal Code might allow Zundel to escape with an acquittal.
Mrs. Citron, impatient with the lack of action, decided to lay a
private charge under the "false news" section, which did not require
the consent of the attorney general. Although he had the power to
stay this charge, McMurtry chose instead to take control of the case.
To have stayed the charge would have been tantamount to granting
Zundel a second triumph, after his initial victory in the postal-ban
hearing. A private prosecution would have been highly unusual in
Canada and would have shown a less than forceful attitude toward the
merchants of hate. Furthermore, there were "reasonable grounds" for
proceeding, and these were sufficient.
Mrs. Citron, in effect, had forced the hand of the attorney general.
A Holocaust survivor herself, she regarded individuals such as Zundel
as responsible for her own personal tragedy. Almost certainly, the
object of her attention understood why she was bound by past
obligations to "slay the Nazi dragon on Carlton Street."[5] Zundel
was far from perturbed at the legal action initiated against him. He
had expected it and, indeed, eagerly anticipated it. In fast, it is
possible that he printed the Holocaust denial pamphlet "Did Six
Million Really Die?" as a deliberate toss of the gauntlet. He
promised to fight the case all the way to the Supreme Court.[6]
Trials and Appeals
Zundel, from the beginning, demonstrated a remarkable flair for
theatricality. He always arrived at court sporting a bullet-proof
vest, making himself even stockier and more portly in appearance: a
figure reminiscent of Mussolini rather than Hitler. His balding head
sported a blue hardhat with the motto "Freedom of Speech." His
entrances and exits were attended by a retinue of male followers with
yellow hardhats. Arriving to be sentenced after his first trial, he
appeared "with a blackened face (because whites cannot receive
justice in Canada) carrying a cross, like Jesus on his way to
Calgary. The cross bore the inscription 'Freedom of Speech'; not only
was Zundel, like Jesus, being crucified by an evil society, but
freedom of speech was being crucified as well."[7] All of this, of
course, was for the benefit of the television cameras. Since,
however, courts do not brook such antics, nor allow their proceedings
to be photographed or filmed, the Zundelists had to surrender their
props (and the cameramen their equipment) on entry.
As his defense counsel, Zundel retained the Victoria-based attorney
Douglas Christie, whom he met in 1984 during a brief visit to Alberta
to support James Keegstra during the latter's preliminary hearing.
Not only has Christie remained Zundel's lawyer, but he has emerged as
the perennial legal defender of Canadian antisemites, acting also for
the long-time Toronto Nazi, John Ross Taylor, and Imre Finta, a
Hungarian-born Toronto restaurateur charged with war crimes.[8] A
vigorous advocate of western separatism. Christie founded the Western
Canada Concept Party, and ran unsuccessfully as an independent twice
in federal elections.
Zundel's first trial lasted eight weeks. On February 28, 1985, the
jury delivered its verdict, acquitting him on the charge connected
with "The West, War and Islam," but finding him guilty of spreading
false news about the Holocaust. One can only speculate on the reasons
for the jury's acquittal on the first charge. Perhaps it was regarded
as less important, since scarcely any time was devoted to it during
the trial. Perhaps the jury reasoned that, since the letter at issue
was mailed abroad only (to 1200 addresses in the Middle East), it was
unlikely to have prejudiced a public interest in Canada. The
acquittal might also have been another example of the Canadian
penchant for compromise; having convicted Zundel on the second and
more significant charge, the jurors were able to afford some measure
of magnanimity. On March 25, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison,
but freed on bail pending an appeal.
To prove the Holocaust denial charge, the Crown had to establish the
falsity of the tract "Did Six Million Really Die?" To achieve this,
the truth of the Holocaust had to be established. For this reason,
Dr. Raul Hilberg of the University of Vermont, one of the world's
foremost authorities on the subject, was called as an expert witness,
as well as a number of survivors. In accordance with a practice
sometimes employed in judicial proceedings, the Crown also requested
that judicial notice of the Holocaust be taken. (In other words, the
court was asked to accept certain matters germane to the case without
actually having to prove them. Such judicial notice can be sought
when the facts are so well-known "in the community" that they cannot
"reasonably be questioned," or when the facts are capable of
determination by readily available evidence of indisputable
accuracy.)[9] The prosecutor requested judicial notice of the fact
that, between 1933 and 1945, millions of Jews were annihilated
deliberately by Nazi Germany, and that this annihilation was
accomplished by various means, including starvation, deprivation,
mass shootings and gassing. The prosecutor refrained from making this
request until after the conclusion of the case against Zundel, but
repeated it after the defense had called all its witnesses. On both
occasions, however, the presiding judge chose to reject the
application, believing that the taking of such notice would hinder a
proper defense, as well as lifting a burden off the prosecution. The
Crown also sought to convince the jury that Zundel did not believe
his own assertions about the falsity of the Holocaust. This was done
by suggesting, particularly during cross-examination, that the
defendant, far from being the disinterested researcher that he
claimed to be, was in fact an ardent neo-Nazi. Thus, Zundel simply
selected material that seemed to support his claims, dismissing the
massive evidence to the contrary. Holocaust denial was really a
scheme to rehabilitate the Third Reich. Finally, the Crown argued
that a campaign branding the Jews as liars and swindlers was not
conducive to social and racial harmony in Canada and was therefore
injurious to the public interest.
The defense chose to raise radical questions about the Holocaust
itself. Christie engaged in brutal cross-examinations of survivor
witnesses, seeking to undermine their testimony, cast doubt on their
suffering and deprive their experiences of any real significance. The
defense also called 'expert' witnesses of its own in the form of
various notorious Holocaust deniers, not unlike Zundel himself. The
media, in its coverage. tended to focus on the sensational and
provocative suggestions of the defense counsel, as well as on the
testimony of his witnesses. The Holocaust itself was not news;
however, the suggestion that the murders were a hoax was news. Hence,
the front-page headline in The Globe and Mail of January 12, 1985,
read: "Lawyer Challenges Crematoria Theory." Christie also tried to
establish that Zundel honestly believed the Holocaust denial views
that he promoted. If the jury could be convinced of his sincerity, it
was bound to find him innocent under the law. The jury, however, was
not convinced, returning a verdict of guilty. Zundel was defiant and
unrepentant. At what has been described as "an impromptu press
conference held from the prisoner's dock in the courtroom,"[10] he
declared that the trial had gained him "one million dollars worth of
publicity."[11] However, this bold claim was without foundation. In
fact, the only change of public attitude as a result of the trial was
one of greater sympathy for the Jewish community.[12] Ironically, the
sector of the population most sympathetic to antisemitism was also
the sector least responsive to media reports; even the converted did
not listen.
The defendant launched an appeal, which was heard in September 1986,
by a panel of five judges of the Ontario Court of Appeal. His lawyer
argued that the "false news" law was unconstitutional, violating the
freedom of expression provisions of the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms. He also argued that the Judge had made numerous errors,
depriving his client of a fair trial. The Appeal Court rendered its
decision in January 1987. It found the law constitutional, declaring
that certain modes of expression. e.g., "spreading falsehoods
knowingly," were not protected by Charter guarantees of free speech.
It also declared that social and racial tolerance constituted a
paramount public interest. However, the court ordered a new trial,
agreeing that fundamental errors had been committed during the
proceeding The defense counsel, for example, should have been allowed
to question prospective jurors. The court acknowledged that some of
the questions that Christie sought to ask were improper, but felt
that the judge should have allowed him to formulate more acceptable
questions. More importantly, the court found that the judge had
equated Zundel's "knowledge" of the falsity of the pamphlet "Did Six
Million Really Die?" with "an absence of honest belief in the truth
of its claims."[13] However, the false news law demands proof beyond
a reasonable doubt of "guilty knowledge" on the part of the accused -
a standard that is one significant notch higher than absence of
honest belief. This confusion, together with the jury selection
errors, warranted a retrial. The Crown unsuccessfully sought leave to
appeal the court's decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. Zundel's
second trial began on January 11, 1988, almost three years later.
The second trial was in many ways a replay of the first, but with
some significant differences. The Crown found a new expert, Professor
Christopher Browning, a prominent Holocaust historian at Pacific
Lutheran University. No survivors were called. Moreover, judicial
notice of the Holocaust was obtained. This "bare bones" (as the Crown
later referred to it) judicial recognition of the historical
character of the mass murders still permitted the defense to raise
questions regarding the intent of Nazi policy, the means employed and
the number of victims. As a consequence, the rights of the accused
were protected. The defense strategy was unchanged, although Zundel
did not take the stand this time. Some new faces were added to the
roster of witnesses, the most significant being that of the
ultra-nationalistic English historian, David lrving. Irving had not
denied the historicity of the Holocaust initially but, in his book
Hitler's War, had suggested that the murders were not Hitler's
personal work. Indeed, he had once offered a L1000 reward to anyone
who could produce a written order from the Fuehrer for the
destruction of European Jewry. More and more willing to associate
openly with Holocaust deniers, he chose to identify himself publicly
with their position at Zundel's second trial. Another difference
between the two trials lay in the more sensitive and restrained
nature of the media coverage. The camera footage rarely, if ever,
appeared on the television news, so that Zundel's antics passed
unnoticed as far as the public was concerned.
The defendant was found guilty again by a jury of his peers and
sentenced to nine months in prison. His appeal was heard by a three
judge panel of the Ontario Court of Appeal in September 1989. In
February 1990, the court upheld both the conviction and the sentence.
At the time of writing, his legal fate remains unresolved, pending a
final appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
[Transcriptor's Note: The Supreme Court later decided that the
"false news" statute, with which Zundel was charged, was not
Constitutional. Only the statute was specifically addressed by the
Supreme Court, not the two earlier convictions under that statute.
Effectively, it was declared legal for Zundel and other Canadians to
knowingly lie. Zundel incorrectly refers to this as "acquittal."
http://www.almanac.bc.ca/cgi-bin/ftp.pl?people/z/zundel.ernst/supreme.court/judgement.1992
http://www.webcom.com/~ezundel/english/ZTU/SIRC.pdf ]
Background and Beginnings
Ernst Christof Friedrich Zundel was born on April 24, 1939, in the
village of Calmbach, in the Black Forest region of Germany. He was
barely six when the war ended in 1945, too young to have joined the
Hitler-Jugend (Hitler Youth) or to have been involved in anything
serious in the Nazi period.[14] Ernst was one of three siblings; if
his account is to be believed, his sister became a Christian
missionary in Africa and his brother a lawyer in the United
States.[15] His father was a woodcutter who had served as a medic
during World War II; his mother was of peasant stock. Both his
parents were apolitical. The family is said to have lived on the same
farm for 300 years. In his autobiography, Zundel writes that,0 from
this inconspicuous background, he emerged with boyhood memories of
personal suffering during Germany's defeat - "hunger, cold and
sickness" under the French military occupation.[16] Moroccan and
Algerian troops occupying the local schoolhouse forced him and his
friends to attend classes in the Protestant church. In 1953, he
enrolled in a trade school, obtaining a diploma as a photo retoucher
three years later. This became his later vocation in Toronto. After
graduating, he lived and worked for a while in north Germany. In
1958, at the age of 19, he emigrated to Canada, bringing a letter of
recommendation from his last German employer which described him as
excellent at his trade and a person whom everyone liked: Germany's
loss was Canada's gain! The immigrant first settled in Montreal,
where he married Jeannick LaRouche, a French-Canadian girl from the
Lac St. Jean region. The couple had two sons, Pierre Ernst and Hans.
Continuing his education, Zundel studied history and political
science at Sir George Williams University (he was later to credit
these studies with his "general historical background" to the
Holocaust).[17] However, it was outside the university walls that
Zundel received the education that mattered the most to his
subsequent career. His teacher was Adrien Arcand, Canada's
quintessential Nazi who, in the early 1960s, was living out his last
years in Montreal. In his autobiography, Zundel devotes space to what
he regards as the sad story of Arcand's arrest and imprisonment
without trial for the duration of World War II as "Canada's
Hitler."[18] He bewails this injustice, especially since Arcand never
received a penny of restitution. The master's fate, according to his
youthful admirer, was no different from that of thousands of Germans.
Italians and Japanese. "Not a soul writes about (them) in Canada
today and no monuments have been erected and no Holocaust film has
been produced about them.''[19] Arcand himself was a philo-German who
spoke German fluently. Taking Zundel under his wing, he made his
private library of 4000 books. including many German pre-war
monographs, available to his disciple. Arcand also introduced Zundel
to, or placed him in touch with, his friends and contacts in Canada,
the United States and Europe. This network included noted antisemites
such as Paul Rassinier, Henry Coston. Admiral Sir Barn-Domville, Sir
Oswald Mosley and others. As a result of these contacts, Zundel
writes, his "life was enriched."[20] The aged fascist played mentor
to the young in migrant, much as the old Houston Stewart Chamberlain
once played mentor to the young Adolf Hitler. Zundel credits Arcand
with bringing "order into my confused mind"[21] (elsewhere, he
declares that Hitler brought order to a confused Germany [22]).
Summing up his entire apprenticeship, Zundel states that "in distant
Canada he (Arcand) made a German out of me."[23] Indeed, his
autobiography proudly reproduces two photographs of the two men
sitting together.
In the mid-1960s, Zundel left Montreal and settled with his family in
Toronto, a city that, from 1963 to the end of the decade, was passing
through a visible phase of neo-Nazi activism. A youthful David
Stanley from suburban Scarborough was its first catalyst. When
Stanley repudiated neo-Nazism after having read Eric Hoffer's "The
True Believer," he was replaced by a not much older John Beattie as
local leader. Not surprisingly, Zundel began to associate with the
various Toronto neo-Nazi groups, including Stanley's and Beattie's.
He already possessed the largest private collection of Nazi
memorabilia in Canada, including books, portraits, insignia, etc. - a
collection conceivably enhanced by his rumoured inheritance of
Arcand's vast library of antisemitica.
However, he avoided leadership roles, preferring to stay on the
fringe; he had the leadership of another party in mind. Taking his
first stab at stardom, Zundel, despite his German citizenship, placed
his name in the 1968 leadership contest of the federal Liberal party
(credential arrangements at Canadian political conventions were
rather loose at that time). He described himself as a dark horse
candidate, representing what he referred to as "the third
element,"[24] i.e., ethnic groups whose ancestry was neither British
nor French. Zundel also portrayed himself as a staunch anti-
Communist, making, of course, no mention of his neo-Nazi views and
associations; since he was not known publicly in this capacity - in
fact, he was not known at all - neither did anyone else. In his
autobiography, he speaks of his candidacy as though it had
constituted the sensation of the day. "I was therefore the only
non-Minister and outsider. the youngest candidate and also the first
immigrant and German Canadian in Canada's history who had achieved
this. This gave me the image of a maverick, a Skorzeny figure of
politics."[25] In reality, no one cared who he was, his nomination
attracted almost no attention, and he received not a single vote.
Immediately forgotten, he returned to obscurity in his double life.
During this period, Zundel had also been busy with his professional
and business career. In this pursuit, he was successful and soon
owned his own advertising agency and commercial studio. As an artist,
he worked for such national magazines as MacLean's, Homemaker's and
Quest: in December 1973, his name appeared in a full-page
advertisement, together with the names of other "writers.
illustrators and photographers" who had "all helped make Homemaker's
and Quest Canada's most successful new magazines."[26] Also, Zundel
twice won awards for his work from the Art Directors' Club of
Toronto.
While enjoying these plaudits, however, he continued and intensified
his neo-Nazi activities, especially his literary endeavors. Nor was
he loath to employ his artistic talents for the cause. In 1976, a
series of multi-coloured, multi-lingual leaflets appeared, calling
for the release of Rudolf Hess from prison. They bore a Verdun,
Quebec, postal box number and were attributed to something called the
Western Unity Movement. The quality of the art suggested the work of
a professional. As no Western Unity Movement existed in Verdun or
elsewhere, the leaflets were soon traced back to Zundel, who had
simply rented a Verdun postal box as a drop for his propaganda
campaign. In 1977, he demonstrated his originality by producing some
tracts claiming that UFOs (unidentified flying objects) were Hitler's
secret weapon: a weapon still in use and being refined in secret
bases in the Antarctic and below the earth's surface.
A flyer advertising these extraterrestrial claims described them
(rightly) as "a radical departure from all previous UFO literature in
the English-speaking world."[27] The claims reported in the tracts,
it seems, "were researched in many languages on four continents, and
present a continuing story dating back to the middle of the 1930s,
when the first Nazi saucers were planned, right up to the present
day."[28] Zundel penned this material under his quasi-pseudonym of
Christof Friedrich. With characteristic puffery, his flyer described
himself, i.e., Friedrich, as "the multilingual-globetrotting author"
who was "in great demand as a lecturer and panelist on UFO and
psychic matters."[29]
Zundel did not limit his literary efforts to the outer edges of
neo-Nazi research; he also made substantial contributions to the more
traditional themes of antisemitism and white supremacy under the same
nom de plume. Thus, in a 1976 issue of The Liberty Bell entitled
"Four Books That Shook the World," he presented a two-page synopsis
of antisemitic articles from the 1920s that had first appeared in
Henry Ford's "Dearborn Independent". In the January 1970 edition of
"White Power Report," another product of White Power Publications, he
published an article entitled "Our New Emblem - The Best of Both
Worlds." This particular edition also described the activities of Don
Andrews and the small fascist organization that styled itself the
Western Guard (Andrews, a Balkan-born, Canada-raised antisemite and
white supremacist, was at the forefront of neo-Nazi agitation in
Toronto in the mid-1970s).
Obviously, Zundel had maintained his association with the various
Toronto neo Nazi groups, as well as with John Ross Taylor, the
neo-Nazi elder statesman in Canada. He was also present at a public
meeting of Ron Gostick's Canadian League of Rights in the Royal York
Hotel in Toronto in December 1977. During this time, Zundel began to
acquire a personal following, with meetings in his home attended by
guests in the dozens. Known neo-Nazis who gravitated to him included
Walter (or Wolfgang) Droege, an associate of Andrews, as well as
David Astle and Jack Prins, former associates of John Beattie. In
late 1977, Zundel organized his own group, "Omega," in association
with the Hungarian Geza Matrai, the man who had "jumped" Premier
Kosygin of the Soviet Union in 1971. This group absorbed Droege as
well as Armand Syksna. To distribute his neo-Nazi materials and
handbills, however, Zundel usually recruited hangers-on from the
entourages of Don Andrews and John Ross Taylor.
This Jekyll-and-Hyde existence was not without its personal toll. In
1975, his wife left him, fearful of death threats, as Zundel
explained in an interview in The Globe and Mail.[30] Since his own
profile was relatively low at the time, it is more likely that his
wife simply tired of his obsessions, and of the somewhat unsavoury
company that he kept. On the whole, Zundel managed to keep his dual
identity intact. There were occasional lapses, as, for example, when
Jewish businessmen dealing with him in a professional capacity
received hate propaganda by mistake, rather than the material under
contract.
One client, on entering Zundel's shop in mid-1976, found "a huge
rock-iron swastika on the wall, surrounded by portraits of Hitler and
other Nazis."[31] Still, these incidents were exceptions, and few
outsiders knew of his neo-Nazi persona. Hence, it was possible in
1976 for Hanoch Borda to write a rather straight story in The Toronto
Star daily feature "Whatever Became of...?" about the anti-Communist,
ethnic candidate in the Liberal party leadership race in 1968.[32]
Noting that "Ernest Zundel" had now dropped the "e" from his first
and last names, Borda did not realize that his subject had simply
returned to the original German spelling. The article raised the
possibility that Zundel might seek political office again: "I am
still young!"
The screening of the television miniseries "Holocaust" in April 1978
provided Zundel with a new opportunity for publicity and notoriety.
Under the cover of his newly launched front organization, "Concerned
Parents of German Descent," he picketed the screening of the series
and denounced its serialization in the press. The revelation, in Mark
Bonokoski's column in the Toronto Sun (1978), of Zundel's outright
neo-Nazism hardly deterred the self- appointed champion of German
national honour at all.
A few months later, in October 1978, together with his followers, he
staged a series of pickets in Toronto, Hamilton and Oshawa against
the film The Boys From Brazil. The protagonist in this film is Joseph
Mengele, the "Angel of Death" of Auschwitz, responsible for sending
hundreds of thousands to the crematoria, and infamous for his brutal
medical experiments. Mengele is portrayed as attempting to revive
Nazism through a variety of means, including the cloning of Adolf
Hitler.
In objecting to the film, Zundel declared: "It is unfortunate that
German people are either depicted as bungling Colonel Klinks with a
monocle or killers."[33] Subsequently, in January of 1979, he
organized a series of poorly attended demonstrations before the
Israeli Consulate, the West German Consulate and other German
agencies and businesses to protest the screening of the "Holocaust"
series in Germany. In his flyer, Zundel referred to East Germany,
West Germany and Austria as "the three German puppet States," and the
government of West Germany as the "West German Occupation
Regime."[34] Significantly, the flyer bore the name of Ernst Christof
Friedrich Zundel: at last, he had decided to cast off his double life
and devote himself openly to the cause.
The Cause
Zundel utilized at least two postal drops: in Verdun, Quebec, and in
Buffalo, New York. He relied on the latter particularly during the
year when his postal privileges were suspended in Canada. His
principal centre of operation, however, which served as headquarters,
office and residence, was his house on Carlton Street, on the edge of
downtown Toronto. An old, somewhat neglected, Victorian structure, it
listed four different occupants on the front shingle: Samisdat
Publications; Cariton Galleries; Idea Centre; Zundel Studios. They
were, of course, one and the same.
Other organizations could have been listed as well, e.g., "Western
Unity Movement" and "Concerned Parents of German Descent" and, in
1981, "The German-Jewish Historical Commission." Zundel, in a classic
image inversion, named his principal publishing organ "Samisdat" -
the term used by Soviet dissidents to describe their underground
publications. "Idea Centre" no doubt referred to his firm, "Great
Ideas Advertising." What great ideas emanated from this Canadian
Carlton underground?
The central idea is simple enough: the Holocaust never took place,
being a monumental fabrication by Jews or Zionists (two terms used
interchangeably) to extract reparation money from Germany for
themselves and for the state of Israel. The German people constitute
the principal group victimized by this Jewish scam. Not only is the
Holocaust described as a "legend," but its alleged victims, as well
as those engaged in a so-called remembrance, are characterized as
"holocaust racketeers."[35] The Holocaust, Zundel asserts, is
a gigantic hoax which cynically and diabolically aims at blackmailing
the German people all over the world.... There were no "six million
holocaust victims." There was no Nazi genocide programme. There were
no gas chambers for "exterminating" Jews or anybody else. The Second
World War caused tremendous suffcring on all sides - German and Jew,
Axis and Allied. None were the victors; all were the victims. But I
repeat THERE WAS NO JEWISH HOLOCAUST.[36]
This claim is elaborated elsewhere: "My conclusion... is that no such
extermination programme ever existed and that it is wartime hate
propaganda masquerading as history."[37] Zundel is thus among the
proponents of historical revisionism, or Holocaust denial - the new
antisemitism of the late twentieth century. Integral to this
allegation is the view that World War II was basically a conflict
between two peoples, the Germans and the Jews, each with its own
constellation of allies. In one of his flyers, this notion is
explicit: "We do not deny that many Jews and their allies suffered
and even died in World War II, nor do we omit to mention the fact
that many millions of Germans and their allies suffered and died in
that conflict.[38]
The apposition of Germans and Jews is, of course, misleading.
"Germans" really stand in this context for Nazi Germany, a powerful,
technologically advanced, fully armed, modern state, whereas the Jews
in the Nazi era constituted an unarmed, defenseless, civilian
population in a number of states where their status and security was
more or less uncertain. Yet, in one sense, the apposition is not
misleading; it reflects the brutal fact that, between 1939 and 1945,
Nazi German did indeed fight two wars, World War II and a special war
against the Jews. Zundel and other deniers regard the Jews as having
"started the Hatemongering which led directly to World War II," and
as having "declared a 'holy war' against Germany" in late March of
1933.[39]
Ironically, this charge was inspired by an old headline in the London
Daily Express, "Judea declares war on Germany";[40] the latter,
however, referred to Jewish reactions outside of Germany to
Nazi-inspired Jew-baiting after Hitler's accession to power in 1933,
i.e., demonstrations and calls for the boycott of German goods.
According to Zundel, therefore, the Jews brought the war on
themselves: this theme is recurrent. Thus, the Jews are blamed for
Kristallnacht in November 1938: "Mysterious people wearing SS
uniforms suddenly appeared out of nowhere, set fire to the synagogues
and just as suddenly and mysteriously vanished. The same tactics as
the Zionists used against Germany as partisans, maquis and as members
of the Jewish Brigade: false uniforms, false documents, etc."[41]
One truth is absolute as far as the propagandist is concerned:
whatever happened to the Jews in the Nazi era, the Third Reich was
not responsible: "in the Hitler period thousands of Jews emigrated to
Palestine with the knowledge and assistance of the German authorities
in co-operation with the Zionists... [T]he German breakdown brought
with it the breakdown of Jewish emigration."[42] In other words, all
was well under Hitler; matters only took a turn for the worse when
the Nazi order collapsed. After the war, as nature's ingrates, the
Jews were consumed by a bloodthirsty passion for vengeance against
Germans. "I must kill a German in cold blood and I must rape a German
girl" are the words Zundel puts into Jewish mouths.[43]
It was the Jews, he suggests in one of his newsletters, who tried to
assassinate Konrad Adenauer in 1952.[44] Indeed, as well as
concocting the Holocaust, the Jews, at once capitalists, communists
and Freemasons, have been busy manipulating world events and the
media for their own ends. Working directly, or through agents, they
direct hate propaganda against the Islamic nations and eastern
Europeans, as well as the Germans and the Japanese. "Zionists never
stop at words. Their words of hate always precede their hateful
deeds."[45]
As Satanic assassins and murderers, they are responsible for mass
tortures, deportations, murders, and all imaginable kinds of
calamities - indeed, as one commentator has put it, "for evils that
could be generated only by the four horsemen of the Apocalypse or by
a full regiment of apocalyptic cavalry."[46] According to Zundel,
they have well nigh achieved the destruction of the West and
represent a constant danger to world peace. In one of his
publications, "Samisdat Battletips," he writes that, at times, Jewish
deeds do compel Germans "to use fighting methods that are not exactly
according to the rules of German chivalry, honesty and fairness."[47]
While "Jew" and "Zionist" are used interchangeably, "Zionist" is
usually preferred for at least two reasons: (1) It can be more easily
employed to denote something evil, e.g., as the "liars-for-hire,"
"pogrom-propagandists," - and "Zion-nazis," whereas the term "Jew"
includes Jewish groups. such as the hasidic Neturei Karta, as well as
certain individuals, such as Alfred Lilienthal and Richard Arens. who
are useful because they oppose the State of Israel on principle;[48]
(2) "Zionist" is also preferable because the Canadian anti-hate law
specifically limits the types of groups protected from
victimization.[49] Zundel writes: "Zionism is a political movement,
not a racial movement.... [T]herefore any criticism of Zionist policy
cannot be 'racism'."[50] As, moreover, "no Zionist is 'a member of an
identifiable group' under the Criminal Code, anymore than Liberals or
Conservatives, can such criticism constitute "hate" under the
Criminal Code?"[51]
This awareness of the ambiguities of the law is evident elsewhere as
well. "The so-called 'Holocaust' is a historical topic, not a 'race'
or 'religion' and the condemnation of the one implies in no way a
condemnation of the others." Moreover, his plea continues, "dissent
is not 'hate' and disagreement is not 'genocide', nor are my
intentions 'hateful' or 'murderous'."[53]
In a circular making a sales pitch for books and cassette tapes, he
disassociates himself and one of his organizations expressly from
part of the content: "although these items do not always reflect the
viewpoints of the members or officers of Concerned Parents of German
Descent, they have been selected for their generally informative and
topical content."[54]
The proposition that no mass murder of Jews ever took place implies
that there were no war criminals. It follows, therefore that such
persons found after the war must be defended against judicial action
at all costs. The case of Albert Rauca is a good illustration. Rauca
was accused of the murder of over 11 000 Lithuanian Jews in the
ghetto of Kovno. In late 1982. he was extradited from Canada to West
Germany, but died before standing trial. To Zundel, he was an
innocent man persecuted by the media: "TRIAL BY MEDIA - MURDER BY
MEDIA" is how Rauca's plight was described. The case of John
Demjanjuk, an American citizen accused of having been "Ivan the
Terrible," a sadistic and murderous guard at Treblinka, is another
illustration. In late 1985, Demjanjuk's extradition to Israel to face
trial was ordered.
To Zundel, Demjanjuk is merely another innocent victim of a Jewish
smear. His SS uniform was a fake, and his identification card as an
SS concentration camp guard was "crudely forged, Soviet
KGB-supplied."[55] Past political inaction regarding suspected Nazi
war criminals is exploited to hinder any future action. "In Canada,
almost a dozen Solicitor Generals and nearly half as many Prime
Ministers treated Zionist agitation about war crimes with the extreme
caution the issue deserves. Were these men all derelict in their
duties or were all these Canadians secret Nazi sympathizers?"[56]
The extradition of Rauca under Solicitor General Robert Kaplan - a
Jew - is ascribed to "Zionist pressure" in order "to turn his
ministry into branch office for Simon Wiesenthal."[57] In Zundel's
view, these alleged offenders are innocent, elderly persons, often
anti-Communist, who only wish to live out their lives peacefully in
the country of their adoption. "Individuals who have resided in
Canada for 36 years without having run afoul of the law, many of them
contributing valuable knowledge of Communism's inner workings and
evil designs to Canada's defense, are now to be dragged out of
retirement and old people's homes."[58] Such sacrificial lambs to a
Jewish-instigated "war crimes hysteria" should be protected by
responsible Canadians.
Zundel's other favourite passion is the glorification of the Third
Reich. "We stand fast, true to our past and to our people," he
proclaims to his German-language audience.[59] Which past he means is
not in doubt. "The generation of our fathers had their Horst Wessel
and Leo Schlageter! They sacrificed their life for our people. Can we
do less?"[60] Wessel, a pimp and thug who died in a beer-cellar
brawl, was immortalized in the Nazi hymn, "The Horst Wessel song";
Schlageter was no better.
Propaganda Techniques and Activities
Most of Zundel's material takes the form of circulars, leaflets and
letters, including letters to the editor: occasionally, he also
issues questionnaires. Some of his organizations have distinctive
letterheads, e.g., Concerned Parents of German Descent, which
features a pre-adolescent blonde girl against a dark background,
curled up, fragile and fearful, with a teardrop descending from each
eye. The pathos-inspiring caption underneath reads, "HELP US." The
German-Jewish Historical Commission sports an imperial eagle in the
top left comer and a Star of David on the right.
Zundel's style is also distinctive: a tightly packed text, sometimes
with press clippings and commentaries appended. His mail-order
operation purveys books, pamphlets, tapes, video cassettes, films,
records and art. There are homemade audio-visual productions. as well
as tapes of media interviews in which the self-appointed defender of
Germany's honour is the star attraction. Fantasy in space, as well as
fantasy in history, is included, with such titles as UFO'S - Nazi
Secret Weapon? or Little Known UFO Sightings from Around the World.
The catalogue also shows that Samisdat serves as a clearing-house for
Holocaust denial publications from all over the world. Authors
represented are the Americans, Arthur Butz, with his The Hoax of the
Twentieth Century, and Austin J. App, with his The Six Million
Swindle; the Briton Richard Harwood, with his pamphlet Did Six
Million Really Die?; the Germans, Udo Walendy, with (among other
tides) Truth for Germany: The Guilt Question of the Second World War
and Thies Christophersen, with his Auschwitz: Truth or Lie; the
Frenchman Robert Faurisson, with his taped presentation ("in slide
show form") on the "fraudulent character of the gas chambers"; and
the Swede Ditlieb Felderer on videotape with The Anne Frank Diary
Hoax. For US$10, one can obtain South Africa Today, in which life in
the last white bastion in Africa is described as it "really is."[61]
A great deal of Nazi material can be ordered, especially tapes of
Hitler's speeches with a "simultaneous English-language translation."
One can hear "the man whose voice captured the hearts and minds of
millions of enthusiastic supporters." Other Nazi offerings include
the movie Triumph of the Will, which is advertised as "The Third
Reich's Version of the Woodstock Festival." For only $10, one can
purchase Hitler Declares War on Poland or Hitler Declares War on
America; one can also purchase "Hitler's sad but powerfully prophetic
final broadcast from Berlin on January 1 1945." Besides Nazi
speeches, the Music of the Third Reich can be obtained, offering "old
favourites" like the "Horst Wessel Lied," and the "Badenweiler
March," described as "Hitler's favourite."
One can further assuage one's penchant for Nazi melodies with "Black
shirt and Brown shirt Stormtrooper Songs and Marches." Art is also
available; the Nazi aficionado can obtain for two dollars "large,
beautiful illustrations of Nazi Secret Weapons suitable for framing."
Devising a symbol based on the old runic form of the letter "Z," the
ingenious artist-entrepreneur has marketed his own creation as
"Thor's Warrior Belt Buckle," which comes with an "embossed Lightning
Bolt of Thor," and the "Amulet of Thor," depicting "Thor's Lightning
Bolt within the Sacred Sun Symbol." In both cases, the lightning bolt
is the letter "Z."
Canadian politicians, both federal and provincial, were bombarded
incessantly by Zundel. Elections provided special opportunities to
canvass both incumbents and other candidates hungry for office.
Another favourite target group was the media: on the whole, however,
Zundel has been unsuccessful in his efforts to employ the media as a
vehicle for the promulgation of his views. From time to time, he
enjoyed modest success, usually in one of the smaller outlets. Thus,
for example, in October 1979, a substantial letter to the editor from
the tireless propagandist was printed in The Mirror of Middleton,
Nova Scotia. This prompted a reply from an expatriate American living
in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Ms. Barbara Bachrach Taylor, who
questioned the editorial decision to publish Zundel, characterizing
his letter as "very disturbing in many ways to many people in the
community," and proceeded to answer it.[62] On another occasion, in
June 1981, a Niagara Falls radio station put him on a three-hour
phone-in program.
Zundel also distributed his material to libraries and schools across
Canada. Invariably, the recipients contacted the Canadian Jewish
Congress with expressions of concern. In late 1978, when a copy of
Butz's "The Hoax of the Twentieth Century" was mailed to a junior
high school principal in Toronto, and when it was discovered that
other mailings were being planned, the Toronto Board of Education
alerted all elementary and high school principals under its
jurisdiction. Apart from sundry individuals and organizations, Zundel
acquired a steady list of subscribers numbering between 700 and 800
in Canada.[63] His Canadian mailing list, however, pales in
comparison to his infiltration of the antisemitic market in the
United States. Here alone, he claims a mailing list of 29 000,
although it is unclear as to whether this includes about 10 000 radio
and TV stations. As part of his North American promotion campaign, he
has placed full-page advertisements for Samisdat Publications in such
magazines as Soldier of Fortune and Saga; he advertised also in
Marvel Comics, until its pages were closed to him.[64]
Outside of North America, West Germany constitutes his principal
target, where (as in Canada) his mass mailings are aimed at
parliamentarians. In December 1983, he sent the book "Allied War
Crimes" to all members of the West German parliament, acquiring in
his homeland an ideologically sympathetic clientele for his mail
order business. In December 1980, the Parliamentary Secretary of
State for the Federal Ministry of Finance announced in the Bundestag
that. between January 1, 1978 and December 30, 1979, "200 shipments
of a right wing extremist and neo-Nazi content...books, periodicals,
symbols, decorations, films, cassettes, records...came overwhelmingly
from Canada."[65] He added that, as a result of similar shipments
during the first half of 1980, prosecutions were being considered.
On April 23, 1981, in a letter to the Canadian Jewish Congress, an
official of the Ministry of Finance in Bonn identified the source of
these materials as "Samisdat Publishers, 206 Carlton Street, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada M5A 2L1."[66] A story on Simon Wiesenthal in the New
York Times Magazine of May 3, 1981, provides a particularly telling
example of how Zundel's mailings filter through German society and
beyond. A Dutch tourist, vacationing in Upper Austria, was supplied
with antisemitic material by a gas station attendant, who, in turn,
had obtained the writings from a friend who was a Samisdat
subscriber.[67]
Canada, the United States, Germany and Europe do not comprise the
limits of Zundel's reach: Australia is also within his orbit, as is
the Middle East. In the summer of 1981, 400 tapes in the Arabic
language apparently were shipped to opinion-makers in Arab lands.[68]
Zundel's claim to be in touch with people in 45 to 47 countries in at
least 14 different languages is not impossible: an impressive
operation indeed! This propaganda mill is by no means an altruistic
enterprise. While much of the material is mailed unsolicited, much of
it, together with his vast mail order enterprise, generates funds.
Police sources estimate that a steady income ranging between
$60000-100000 per annum comes from his empire.
Moreover, he has frequently appealed directly for money. A report of
the West German Ministry of the Interior reveals that, in one
fund-raising campaign in 1980, Zundel raised close to 100000 German
marks (the equivalent of $50000).[69] Even this estimate may be too
modest. In one of his own publications in 1981, he pooh-poohed the
German magazine Der Spiegel for guessing that his total annual budget
amounted to 100000 marks, countering indignantly that "Samisdat has
long ago exceeded the figure...for no organization that spans the
world and reaches forty-five countries can manage with so low a
budget."[70]
An enterprising and ambitious man, Zundel regards himself not only as
a businessman and publisher, but also as an intellectual and author.
Certainly, he is not unintelligent. His mission is both practical and
theoretical, combining his flair for organization with his flair for
drama and exhibitionism. One forms an impression of an impresario - a
P.T. Barnum of Holocaust denial. Various circuses are staged at his
home, grandeloquently described in publicity literature as "Samisdat
Lecture Hall." His guest performers have included R.G. Dommerque (or
Dommergue) from France and J.J. Burg from West Germany. Other
speakers have been Frank Walus from the United States and Mrs. Rost
Von Toningen, described as the "wife of the former financial genius
and Finance Minister of Holland." Zundel both arranged their public
appearances and acted as publicity agent. setting up media
interviews, etc.
Zundel's activities as an impresario are not restricted to Canada. As
early as the late summer of 1979, he was engaged (as Ernst Christof
Friedrich Zundel) in organizing a North American speaking tour and a
"historical symposium" for what he referred to as his "Samisdat Truth
Squad."[72] The projected itinerary was ambitious, including Los
Angeles, Las Vegas, Flagstaff, Denver, Topeka, Kansas City, St.
Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, New York, Philadelphia and
Washington. There is no indication that it ever took place. but
Zundel, undaunted, planned a similar venture for his "flying
truth-squads" through his German-Jewish Historical Commission several
years later.[73] Although the impresario might appear more comic than
criminal, the image of buffoon is undoubtedly a device to disarm. It
is evident that Zundel's ideas are toxic, his modus operandi
carefully conceived, his connections in Canada and elsewhere most
unsavoury and the consequences of his presence and his activities
potentially dangerous.
An inkling of this danger was unearthed on March 24, 1981, in what
The Toronto Star described as "the biggest crackdown on neo-Nazis
since West Germany was founded in 1949."[74] West German police,
raiding hundreds of homes of German neo-Nazis, discovered weapons,
ammunition and explosives, as well as tens of thousands of copies of
Zundel-type and Zundel-produced material, including, among other
things, the diary of the top neo-Nazi leader, Manfred Roeder. Roeder,
an ex-lawyer incarcerated in West Germany as a terrorist killer,
claimed an organized network of radical right adherents stretching
across 35 countries. His diary mentions Zundel. The report of the
Ministry of the Interior in West Germany identified Gary Rex Lauck,
George Dietz and Ernst Zundel as important North American contacts of
the West German radical right and its principal suppliers of neo-Nazi
and antisemitic propaganda. Lauck of Lincoln, Nebraska, is the leader
of the American Nazi Party; Dietz, of Reedy, West Virginia, is a
leading American white supremacist; Zundel, of course, has published
in Dietz's publications, and has admitted that Dietz has visited his
Toronto home.[75] There is a sinister aspect to these connections. As
the propagandist himself has reported, he was once visited by the
police who, in his words, "were looking for persons who might be on
my mailing list who were wanted for murdering a certain person of
Hungarian birth in Missouri. The murdered man was a National
Socialist and possessed many of my writings."[76]
The Nielsen Incident
In late 1980, Zundel launched an attack on History 398Y, the
Holocaust course taught at the University of Toronto by two Jewish
history professors, Jacques Kornberg and Michael Marrus, using his
follower, Ernst Nielsen. In a Zundel pamphlet, Nielsen is described
as having been born in pre-war Germany, and having served during the
war as "an air-sea rescue pilot."[77] Shot down on July 1, 1940, he
was imprisoned in England, and subsequently in Canada. In the early
1950s, Nielsen came to Canada as an immigrant, no doubt emulating
other German prisoners of war who had found their wartime
imprisonment in Canada not particularly harsh and had seen the nation
as a land of opportunity. In Zundel's account, however, Nielsen's
settlement is portrayed as some kind of noble act for which Canadians
should be profoundly thankful, rather than a piece of obvious
opportunism. "Mr. Nielsen is not a man to bear grudges." the pamphlet
states, "so he returned to Canada in the early 1950s and went to work
as a productive member of our society."[78]
In the 1979-80 academic year, Nielsen audited History 398Y; in
1980-81, he enrolled formally in the course. It is quite clear that
his purpose was not the pursuit of knowledge but to instruct the
instructors and the rest of the class that the Holocaust was a hoax
and a fraud. His tactics consisted of constant interruption and
harassment. As a result, he was asked to withdraw from the course in
both years. On November 10, 1980, in a letter to Professor William
Callahan, Chairman of the Department of History, Nielsen appealed his
second removal. His two-page letter, a precis of Holocaust denial,
describes the books on the class reading list as "nothing but hate
literature." The works "are not factual, but are Zionist incitements
to hatred of Germans - living, dead, and yet unborn." Most of the
authors cited in the course are "virulently anti-German, Zionist
fiction writers, not historians."[79] Nielsen further argued that a
professor teaching a course on this subject should "not be a member
of any ethnic group or organization directly concerned with the
Holocaust legend," adding that "no teacher be a Jew or a German, a
Zionist or a Nazi."[80] (The apposition and the equation of Zionist
and Nazi is significant.) The letter also provides a list of
notorious Holocaust deniers in the guise of "recognized scientific
authorities," adding the suggestion that the University of Toronto
sponsor a 'Holocaust Symposium.' Nielsen concluded by offering to
procure a number of his "authorities" for the benefit of the
university community.
This offer, as well as the entire affair, was almost certainly
masterminded by Zundel; Nielsen was merely his mouthpiece and agent
provocateur. Indeed, Nielsen's letter to Callahan, both in form and
content, is typical of Zundel's style and method. Nielsen, for
example, wrote that he had "been assured of the backing of several
local and international German ethnic organizations," but the only
organization actually mentioned is the German-Jewish Historical
Commission - one of Zundel's fronts.[81]' Furthermore, another of
Zundel's fronts, Concerned Parents of German Descent, avidly took up
his defence. In a pamphlet titled "Holocaust Course Stirs
Controversy," Zundel referred to the professors in History 398Y as
"Biased predatory and mendacious Zionist advocates who write
Holocaust fiction for profit," and railed against the "misallocation
of...tax dollars." [82] Declaring that "the abuse of our University
system through the inclusion of hateful, biased, unscrupulous Zionist
propaganda posing as history must be halted," he listed the names and
telephone numbers of a number of university officers and
administrators, urging his supporters to phone in protest even on
weekends.[83] The incident, however. although unpleasant or the
instructors, as well as for the Jewish students in the class, only
confirmed the importance of the course by providing an in-class
illustration of the pathological antisemitism and nationalism that
had kindled the flames of the Final Solution in the first place. As
far as Zundel and Nielsen were concerned, their efforts were an
exercise in futility.
Zundel and the Jewish Community
In the spring of 1981, Zundel applied to the Canadian Jewish Congress
for the advertised position of director of the Holocaust
Documentation Bank Project (designed to document extensively the
memories of Canadian survivors). He penned his application on April
10, barely two weeks after the media had identified him as a major
manufacturer and exporter of neo-Nazi and Holocaust denial
literature. In his application (which, incidentally, contains his
full name), he described himself as "the ideal candidate" for the
position. He was, in his own words, "extremely knowledgeable and
sensitive in regard to the Holocaust issue," and possessed "a good
understanding of... Yiddish."[84] The applicant also generously
offered the project his "substantial Holocaust archives."[85] The
Congress sent Zundel a standard reply indicating that his application
had arrived too late for consideration and that a director had been
appointed already.
In 1981, Zundel announced that his German-Jewish Historical
Commission was organizing a series of Holocaust symposia to begin in
November or December of the same year. To raise funds, he addressed
himself to Canadian business people, seeking minimum donations of
$250. "Minimum donors" were to be granted "the German-Jewish
Historical Commission's Community Fellowship Award," while "donors of
$500 or more" were to be honoured at a "Symposium Celebrity
Banquet."[86] Prominent Jewish scholars were asked to participate.
Rabbi Gunther Plaut, for example, was invited to present his
"Holocaustological viewpoints,"[87] and Michael Marrus, whom he had
castigated as a mendacious Zionist during the Nielsen incident, was
also invited: Zundel indicated that he knew that Marrus understood
the "tremendous" educational value of "such a meeting of minds."[88]
His needling of the Jewish community knew no bounds. On September 28,
1981, in the classified section of The Toronto Star carrying Rosh
Hashanah greetings for that year, there was an entry from Ernst
Zundel and Samisdat Publishers Limited wishing a "Happy New Year to
all our Jewish friends."
Another favourite theme was his avowed intention to meet with
representatives of the Jewish community, allegedly to work things
out. He articulated that intention in a 1981 letter to Rabbi Plaut
and repeated it in a letter of November 4, 1982, to the Canadian
Jewish Congress, referring (among other things) to the
"rapidly-eroding Holocaust Legend" and the "wild claims of
mass-gassings."[89] In the later letter, he described himself as "the
only person in Canada who can virtually guarantee the Jewish
community a smooth transition from hysterical World War II hate
propaganda to historical fact...."[90] Obviously, nothing could and
nothing did come of such overtures, although this foregone conclusion
did not dampen his zeal.
In February 1983, under his Concerned Parents of German Descent
letterhead, he mailed a six-page letter to rabbis and Jewish
community leaders across Canada. Opening with "Shalom," he called
once more for dialogue, declaring that, because his previous gestures
were turned down by "senior members of certain influential Jewish
community organizations," he had chosen to go above their heads to
communicate directly with Jewish leaders in different parts of the
country.[91] He offered himself as a speaker to synagogues and Jewish
Community Centres (for a fee, of course) ending with the pious hope
that the lies separating Jews and Germans would be put to rest, and
that the "liars would be anathematized."[92] In making his point, he
actually referred to the Talmud, citing a phrase which he paraphrased
as stating "that a lie kills three persons - the person lied about,
the person who believes the lie and finally, the liar himself."[93]
Predictably, the Jewish community was angered by these provocations,
which rubbed salt in wounds already opened by Zundel's neo-Nazi and
Holocaust denial activities. His tactics constituted a brutal assault
on Jewish sensibilities, as well as a desecration of Hitler's
victims. Through his characterization of the Holocaust as a
political-financial swindle, he also defamed the Jewish people.
Hence, he became another name on a list of Canadian antisemites from
whom redress was sought through legal means. The search for legal
protection against antisemitism in particular, and racism in general,
led finally to his indictment and trials.
Zundel's Creed
"The Hitler We Loved and Why" is the title of a 120-page (text and
photographs) soft-cover book co-authored by a certain Christof
Friedrich, who, of course, was none other than Ernst Zundel. The
journalist Mark Bonokoski blew Zundel's cover in a Toronto Sun column
of April 19. 1978. showing that Zundel, using his middle names
Christof Friedrich, had produced, with Eric Thomson, this panegyric
work, published by White Power Publications, of Reedy, West Virginia.
White Power is headed by George Dietz, who is also the editor and
publisher of The Liberty Bell.
Zundel, in his interview with Bonokoski, neither confirmed nor denied
that he was Christof Friedrich, but Dietz definitely told Bonokoski
that Zundel and Friedrich were one and the same. Furthermore, on the
day after Bonokoski's column appeared, Zundel openly admitted that he
was Christof Friedrich in an interview with David Schatsky on CBC
radio.[94] In February 1977, The Liberty Bell reviewed "The Hitler We
Loved and Why" as follows: "(Friedrich) leaves no doubt about it.
Hitler was well loved and loved in return, but this relationship
between the Leader and his people was not the gushy, sickly-sweet
effusion of an obese Jewish mother for her pimply, draft-dodging son.
This was Aryan love. Strong, steady and uplifting."[95] Hitler is
portrayed as a revered saint and holy man. a godly messiah who had
rescued Germany with the salvationist ideology of white supremacy.
Out of the rubble of a nation laid waste by the Jews, the Fuehrer
built an orderly, corruption-free, economically vibrant, and morally
pure society in which "our men were manly and our women feminine,"
and "nutrition came before profit; quality before quantity."[96]
Everyone was properly cared for in this Nazi utopia, including the
animals (even in wartime, it seems, there were ration cards for dogs
as well as people). The disabled, however, did not fare as well,
since Hitler devised a eugenic solution for them. Nor, according to
'Friedrich,' "were idiots, morons and imbeciles possible under
National Socialism, simply because such sorry specimens were not
allowed to reproduce."[97] Unashamedly, medical certificates of
fitness or unfitness for child-bearing in the Third Reich are
reproduced. "For... National Socialism is simply the application of
Nature's Laws to politics," and "Hitler, the artist and designer,
designed a society for loving human beings, not plastic dummies."[98]
Through this great struggle, the white Germanic messiah prevented
"the end of White Civilization."
Even in defeat, therefore, "we loved him because his spiritual
presence prevented our sufferings and sorrows from overwhelming
us."[99] Friedrich's book concludes on a lofty note. Today, Hitler's
spirit "soars beyond the shores of the White Man's home in Europe.
Wherever we are, he is with us. WE LOVE YOU. ADOLPH HITLER!" Hitler
has transcended death. He is a type of risen German Christ, a
faith-figure in the eyes of his disciples. To have loved him in the
past is to love him in the present and future, since Hitler is the
same yesterday, today and forever. "The Hitler We Loved and Why" is
Zundel's personal creed and a revelation of his soul. It provides us
with a spiritual clue to the inner man.
The Man
What caused the post-Hitler, post-Nazi, apolitical youth to become an
ardent neo-Nazi? What led the professional photo retoucher to become
an amateur retoucher of history? It is not inconceivable that the
answer to this question involves the troubling effect that a
uni-dimensional portraiture of Germans in post-war literature had on
an impressionable young mind. Zundel disclosed as much in an
interview with Michael Tenstzen of The Globe and Mail (December 6,
1983). Male adventure magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. with their
focus on German atrocity stories, left a mark on his psyche. "I said,
this is ridiculous. I knew German soldiers in our village, my father
and his brother were ones and they never talked about stories like
this.''[100]
His concern with the negative stereotyping of Germans as
"goose-stepping mass murderers or stupid figures of fun" is, in fact,
shared by mainstream German Canadians. Many of the latter have been
genuinely disturbed by the persistent focus of the media, film
industry and popular literature with that narrow, albeit momentous,
era in German history known as the Third Reich. For the most part,
however, these German Canadians have acknowledged and confronted the
reality of the Holocaust. Believing that there is no cause for shame
in ethnic origin, since there is no such thing as collective guilt,
they are proud of their heritage and their achievements in this
country. Russell Doern, for example, a member of the Manitoba
legislature, declared in an article in Maclean's magazine: "I, too,
am angered, sickened and horrified by the terrible crimes committed
by the Nazis - which the world must never forget." However, in his
view, "German-Canadians must stand proud as an intelligent,
industrious and sensitive people who have made a significant
contribution to Canadian society since the first Germans came here
227 years ago. Only then will our history be placed in proper
perspective."[101]
In reply to a letter from Zundel, Reuben C. Baetz, Minister of
Culture and Recreation for Ontario, wrote as follows (December 31,
1981): "Stereotypes feed on ignorance. If the public knew the story
of the German community, if it were aware of the contributions
Canadians of German origins have made to all aspects of our life, if
it were sensitive to the achievements of all that is best and finest
in the German intellect and spirit, the kinds of objectionable
materials you cite would lose both their credibility and their
audience. In the long run this is the best solution, I believe."[102]
Zundel, however, for a variety of reasons, could never bring himself
to take this approach. For one thing. he could not adopt the
achievements of German Canadians because he refused to become one,
never having taken out Canadian citizenship. To be sure, he did
anglicize his name to "Ernest Zundel" when he arrived first in
Canada, but this did not last; indeed, sometime in the 1970s, he
reaffirmed his Germanness by returning to the original spelling. If
he could not bring himself to emulate German Canadians, he could have
emulated the post-war German generation, that generation that
confronted Nazi criminality, turned its back on Nazism, and built a
new, vibrant and democratic society. He also could have emulated
authentic German heroes, such as the anti-Nazi martyrs who died at
Hitler's hands for their opposition to the dictatorship and its
murderous policies. But he did not.
The only Germany Zundel saw was a "vanquished and divided German
nation"[103] - one he could neither associate with nor accept.
Burdened by guilt, his pride and self-esteem injured, unable to
honestly face the past and thereby transcend it, he opted to deny it.
Since, moreover, Holocaust denial is but one side of a coin whose
other side includes the glorification of the Third Reich, opposition
to justice for Nazi war criminals and a desire to found a white
supremacist Fourth Reich - in short, neo-Nazism-Zundel made the
mental and emotional transition from a post-Hitler youth to a
post-Hitler Hitlerite.
Certain personal character traits also played a part in his
conversion, notably a strong capacity to suspend belief. The same
irrationalism that allows him to ignore scientific evidence pointing
to the non-existence of flying saucers allows him to ignore
historical evidence pointing to one of the best-attested facts of all
time: the Holocaust. Of course, it is likely that Zundel does not
believe in flying saucers at all and these stories are merely for
effect. It is also likely, as the court found in two trials, that he
does not believe in his own propaganda claims, despite the immense
psychological power of wilful self-deception. Holocaust denial is
employed as the key device in marketing neo-Nazism. "If there was
never any crime of mass murder then there are no mass murderers.
Nazism and the Third Reich are whitewashed and made once again
respectable and, what is most important...attractive."[104]
There is also considerable evidence of egomania and exhibitionism.
Zundel regards himself, and wants to be seen, as a man of substance,
a leader, as the sort of pre-eminent individual described in his
autobiography. He does not only love Hitler, he wishes to emulate
him. This passion surely makes him design new neo-Nazi symbols,
incorporating the initial of his own name. Apparently, he sees
himself as a budding Fuehrer; indeed, he described himself to the
Toronto Star (October 3, 1978) as the "Fuehrer of Concerned Parents
of German Descent."[105] Another factor that may have affected his
Nazi metamorphosis is a peculiar sense of shame about what he claims
was his original pacifism. In his interview with Tenstzen of The
Globe, he indicated that he "chose Canada because he knew the country
did not have peacetime conscription."[106] Perhaps his militaristic
neo-Nazism is in part a classic overcompensation for an earlier
non-violent (religious?) ethic. Such things are not unknown.
In any case, the ex-pacifist had marketed depictions of Nazi weapons
and "warrior belt buckles," telling Dick Chapman of The Toronto Sun
(in a March 25, 1981, interview) that, once the Bonn government is
overthrown, "we [will]...certainly execute several hundred of the
current crop of leaders in West Germany."[107] If Zundel was ever a
pacifist, those days are clearly far behind.
Conclusion
Zundel did not emerge from a vacuum. Rather than constituting a new
phenomenon, he belongs an an [sic] antisemitic continuum with pre-war
roots - a continuum only temporarily interrupted in the early 1940s
when Canada fought the Axis powers. After all, Adrien Arcand was his
personal mentor: the Nazi, so to speak, fathered the neo-Nazi.
Throughout his career moreover, Zundel has been at the centre of a
number of circles composed either of antisemites or the 'fellow
travellers' of bigotry, all of which have intersected and continue to
intersect at various points. The lines between such groups are often
blurred, and there is a great deal of cross-fertilization.
Zundel's special contribution to antisemitism in Canada has been the
popularization of Holocaust denial, inspiring other Canadian
antisemites, not merely the neo-Nazis, to adopt this ideology as
their stock in trade. In addition, by means of his mailings overseas
he has placed Canada on the global map as a major exporter of
neo-Nazi material, developing a large network of worldwide contacts.
Probably more than any other Canadian antisemite Zundel has been able
to avail himself of these connections to expose his clientele to the
broadest conceivable range of international antisemitic influence.
Thus, as a premier antisemite both locally and internationally he has
deparochialized Canadian antisemitism and made it 'world class.'
Notes
1. Formerly S. 177, now S. 181, Criminal Code of Canada.
2. Richard Harrwood [alias Richard Verrall] Did Six Million Really
Die? (Toronto: Samisdat. n.d.) p. 4.
3. See the "Report of the Board of Review Appointed to Inquire into
the Facts and Circumstances Surrounding the Interim Prohibitory
Order" on Samisdat Publishers Ltd., October 18, 1982, in Toronto
Jewish Congress/Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region Archives,
JCRC papers MG8/S-Ernst Zundel (hereafter referred to as
TJC-JCRC-Zundel).
4. Formerly S.281.1-281.3. now Ss. 318, 319 and 320 of the Criminal
Code of Canada.
5. Cal Millar, "Man Who Claims Holocaust Never Happened Facing
Charge," The Toronto Star, December 7, 1983 in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
6. Michael Tenstzen. "Man Charged by Auschwitz Survivor," The Globe
and Mail, December 7. 1983, p. 3. Kelly McParland, "Weak Laws Let
Have Peddlers Flourish, Critics Say," The Toronto Star, October 13,
1983, p. A24. Both in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
7. Alan Davies. "A Tale of Two Trials: Antiseminsm in Canada 1985."
Holosaust and Genocide Studies 4.1 (1989): 77.
8. Lerter to the editor from Zundel to Canadian Lawyer (May 1986): 5.
in TIC-JCRC-Zundel. At the time of writing Christie had most recently
appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada, representing Ross in
late November and Taylor and Keegstra in early December 1989. Finta
was acquitted at his trial.
9. See, for example, Peter K. McWilliams, Canadian Criminal Evidence,
3rd ed. (Aurora, ON: Canada Law Book. 1988). p. 24-1; R. v. Zundel,
in Criminal Reports. 3rd series. vol. 56, editor-in-chief Don Stuart
(Toronto: Carswell, 1987), p. 55 and Ronald Joseph Delisle. Evidence:
Principles and Problems (Toronto: Carswell 1984), p. 90.
10. Paul Lungen, "Zundel: 'I Won', Despite Conviction," The Canadian
Jewish News, March 7, 1985
11. Kirk Makin, "Zundel Guilty but Unrepentant," The Globe and Mail,
March 1, 1985.
12. See Gabriel Weimann and Conrad Winn, Hate on Trial: The Zundel
Affair, The Media and Public Opinion in Canada (Oakville: Mosaic
Press 1986).
13. See Manuel Prutschi. "Zundel Verdict Validated Use of 'False
News' Law," The Canadian Jewish News, February 19, 1987.
14. Ernst Zundel graphic arts/photo retouching grade record (March
23) diploma (March 31,1956), attached to his application to Canadian
Jewish Congress (CJC) for position of Director of Holocaust
Documentation Bank Project, all attached to CJC memo, with
enclosures. Rebecca Rosenberg (National Holosaust Remembrance
Committee) to Ben Kayfetz, May 11, 1981 in TJC-JCRC-Zundel. Zundel's
"The Hitler We Loved and Why" is inappropriately titled, since he had
no real personal experience of Hitler at all. At his first trial he
claimed that he only provided the photographs.
15. Michael Tenstzen, "Hate Literature Factory in a Congenial
Setting," The Globe and Mail, December 6, 1983, in TJC-JCRC- Zundel.
16. Two-page memo from B. G. Kayfetz to Rabbi Jordan Pearlson
summarizing "Zundel's autobiography," including a number of direct
quotations, January 25, 1982. Kayfetz had received a copy of the
64-page Zundel autobiography from Canada Post, for analysis, in
TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
17. Zundel letter of application (April 10, 1981), re Directorship
Holocaust Bank Documenution Project (see n. 14, above).
18. Memo Kayfetz to Pearlson, "Zundel's autobiography" (n. 16,
above).
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Christof Friedrich and Eric Thomson, The Hitler We Loved and Why
(Reedy, WV: White Power Publications, 1977), pp. 20, 23 in
TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
23. Memo, Kayfetz to Pearlson, "Zundel autobiography."
24. The Toronto Star, daily feature What Ever Became of...?" by
Hanoch Borda, attached to memo B. G. Kayfetz to J. C. Horwitz and
Rabbi Jordan Pearlson, "Re: Ernst Zundel" July 20, 1976, in
TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
25. Memo, Kayfetz to Pearlson. "Zundel autobiography"
26. Photocopy of advertisement submitted as part of his curriculum
vitae by Zundel to CJC re job application. Holocaust Documentation
Bank Project (see n. 14, above).
27. Zundel flyer "Truth-Declassified," addressed to "Dear UFO
Researcher." Part of enclosures re letter from B. G. Kayfetz to
Morris Saltzman (CJC Vancouver) March 29, 1977, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Tenstzen, "Hate Literature Factory."
31. Mark Bonokoski, "Neo Nazi Leads Protest," The Toronto Sun, April
19, 1978 p. 16, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
32. Borda, "What Ever Became of...?"
33. Unidentified newspaper article reproduced in Zundel flyer headed
"Achtung: Act Now-Prevent Pogroms Later," and attached to a letter to
a subscriber from Eric Murray, an official with Concerned Parents of
German Descent, March 14, 1979 in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
34. Zundel flyer addressed to "Comrades" and beneath his signature he
refers to his organization as SAMISDAT/COMBAT GROUP ZUNDEL, in
TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
35. See, for but one example, flyer headlined "Dear Member of
Parliament you are being lied to...," and flyer, "Dissent is not
hate. The 'Holocaust' is a hoax!" both part of a packet of Zundel
materials attached to memo Bob Willmot (Canada Israel Committee) to
Mark Silverberg (CJC Vancouver) cc'd to Ben Kayfetz, Ottawa April 19,
1984, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
36. Zundel flyer on letterhead of Concerned Parents of German Descent
addressed "To Our Fellow Canadians" [1979?], in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
37. Zundel flyer addressed "To the People of Canada" and headlined
"Attorney General Attempts Cover-Up and Censorship," attached to memo
from B. G. Kayfetz to Morley Wolfe re "Zundel," December 3, 1979, in
TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
38. Zundel flyer titled "Is This 'Racism' or 'Hate'?" addressed to
politicians, media clergy and educators as "A Final Appeal for Help!"
attached to memo Kayfetz to M. Wolfe re "Zundel" ibid.
39. Zundel flyer headlined "Who Are the Hatemongers, Agitators and
Terrorists in Toronto?" p. 4 responding to an anti-Zundel march by
the Jewish community, May 31, 1981, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
40. Ibid.
41. Memo, B. G. Kayfetz to Rabbi Jordan Pearlson and four others, re
"Zundel's German Material," June 10, 1981, p. 2. It is a "precis"
with, in some cases, "direct translation" by Kayfetz of four Zundel
items, all bearing the title "Samisdat" in one form or another made
available to CJC by West German Consulate. Covering memo plus six
pages of text in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Rene Jean Ravault, "A Content Analysis of Two Mailed 'Messages'
Written by Mr. Ernst Zundel (Samisdat)" February 1982, p. 16, in
TJC-JCRC-Zundel. Ravault is quoting from p. 1 of Backlash. The other
publication analyzed was The West, War and Islam. Dr. Ravault, a
Professor of Communisations at the Universiry of Quebec in Montreal
did the analysis for Canada Post re the hearings into Zundel's mail
ban, February-March 1982.
46. Ibid. p. 11.
47. Ibid. p. 28.
48. However, these Jews are far from denying the Holocaust. Thus
Richard Ahrens, in a press clipping that Zundel himself has
reproduced refers to "the massacre of Jews under Hitler in World War
II," and declares unequivocally: "I saw some of the death camps." Yet
Zundel, unfazed, includes this press clipping as part of a Holocaust
denial mailing!
49. See p. 2. For a text of the law, refer to Pocket Criminal Code
1990, ed. Gary P. Rodrigues (Toronto: Carswell. 1989), pp. 166-68.
50. Zundel flyer, attached to memo. Kayfetz to M. Wolfe re "Zundel,"
December 3, 1979 (see above. n. 37).
51. Ibid.
52. Zundel flyer, "Let's Take a Closer Look," addressed to
politicians, p. 4, headlined "Battle Royal Between Zundel and
Zionists?" in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
53. Third page of flyer "Dissent Is Not Hate," etc., part of packet
attached to memo from Willmot to Silverberg, cc'd to Kayfetz (see
above, n. 35).
54. P. 2 of Zundel circular headlined: "Kaplan: Justice, Vengeance or
Hate?" attached to note from J. S. Midanik, Q.C. to Ben Kayfetz, July
7, 1980, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
55. Reverse side of flyer on letterhead of The German-Jewish
Historisal Commission titled "A Challenge to Simon Wiesenthal!" in
TJC-JCRC-Zundel. The question of Demjanjuk's identity has not been
settled by the Israeli courts.
[Transcriptor's Note: The Israeli court later confirmed that
Demjanjuk was indeed an SS guard at Treblinka, but not the infamous
"Ivan the Terrible."
http://www.almanac.bc.ca/cgi-bin/ftp.pl?people/d/demjanjuk.john ]
56. Zundel flyer with Star of David on one side and symbol for poison
on the other, titled "Hate, the 'New' Poison," p. 6 [late 1983] in
TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid., p. 10.
59. Memo, Kayfetz to Pearlson et al.. "Zundel's German mat'l." June
10, 1981, p. 5 (see above, n. 41).
60. Ibid., p. 3
61. Copy of six-page catalogue offerings from Samisdat Publishers,
attached to letter from a Universiry of Chicago Professor of Medicine
(who received the material unsolicited) to the FBI in Washington and
cc'd to B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
62. The Mirror, October 10, 1979, copy of press clipping attached to
letter from Shirlee Fox (Atlantic Jewish Council) to Ben Kayfetz,
November 30, 1979 in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
63. So reported Shelley Kesselman, when covering Zundel's postal
hearing for the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin and Review. March 19, 1982, p.
2.
64. Pat Cunningham. "Mail-Order Fascism Rewrites History," in The
Toronto Clarion, November 28-December 11 [1979?], in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
65. Text of exchange in the Bundestag as translated by Ben Kayfetz,
attached to memo from Ben Kayfetz to Rabbi Jordan Pearlson re
"Zundel," May 11, 1981, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
66. Copy of letter, as translated by Ben Kayfetz, attached to ibid.
67. Paul Hofman, "Austria's Jewish Question." in the New York Times
Magazine, May 3, 1981, p. 144. Attached to memo from Ben Kayfetz to
Jordan Pearlson, June 16, 1981, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
68. In "Zundel's German material," p. 4 attached to memo from Kayfetz
to Pearlson et al., June 10, 1981 (see above, n. 41).
69. Geonze Jahn, "Bonn Fears Extremists Being Supported from Abroad,"
The Globe and Mail, October 30, 1981, p. 16. in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
70. In "Zundel's German Mat'l," p. 5. attached to memo, Kayfetz to
Pearlson, et al. (see above, n. 41).
71. Zundel flyer/invitation in German. on obverse side announcing
program for June 4 and 5, 1983, attached to English translation by
Ben Kayfetz, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
72. See Zundel flyer attached to memo from B. G. Kayfetz to Rabbi J.
Pearlson and R. L. Ronson re "Zundel," August 20, 1979 and exchange
of correspondence between Kayfetz and Milton Ellerin (American Jewish
Committee), August 8 and 15, 1979, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
73 Zundel flyer on letterhead of The German-Jewish Historical
Commission announcing the Commission's founding, with Zundel as
"Director and Spokesman" and "Prof." R. G. Dommerque as "Research
Analyst (France)." For specific reference see reverse side of flyer.
In TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
74. "German Raids Find Metro Nazi Propaganda," The Toronto Star,
March 25, 1981, p. A25 (UPI wire story) in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
75. Ibid.; Dick Chapman "Metro Man Branded a Nazi" The Toronto Sun,
March 25, 1981, p. 22; "City Man Link to Nazis" The Toronto Sun,
March 30, 1981, p. 27; Jahn "Bonn Fears Extremists," p. 16; and
Bonokoski, "Neo Nazi Leads Toronto Protest."
76. In Zundel's German material, p. 4 attached to memo Kayfetz to
Pearlson et al., June 10, 1981 (see above n. 41).
77. Letter from Ernst Nielsen, "Student of History," to William J.
Callahan, Chairman, Department of History, University of Toronto,
November 10, 1980, turned into Zundel flyer headlined "Race Hatred
Taught at University of Toronto," p. 2, attached to letter from Ray
D. Wolfe to Ben Kayfetz, January 13, 1981, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
78. Ibid.
79. Ibid., p. 1.
80. Ibid., p. 2.
81. Ibid., p. 1.
82. Zundel flyer likewise attached to letter from R. D. Wolfe to
Kayfetz January 13, 1981, (see above, n. 77).
83. Ibid.
84. Zundel letter of application April 10, 1981, re Holocaust
Documentation Bank Project.
85. Ibid.
86. Zundel letter on German-Jewish Historical Commission letterhead,
September 14, 1981, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
87. Zundel letter on German-Jewish Historical Commission letterhead,
with attachments, to Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut, c/o The Canadian Jewish
News. September 1 1981, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
88. Zundel letter on German-Jewish Historical Commission letterhead
with attachments, to Professor M. Marrus, c/o History Department,
University of Toronto, September 14, 1981, attached to letter from
Michael M. Marrus to Ben Kayfetz, September 24, 1981, in
TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
89. Zundel letter in German to Rabbi Plaut [probably June 1981] on
plain white paper and signed "the non-hater." Zundel letter on plain
white paper to "The Directors, The Canadian Jewish Congress,"
November 4, 1982, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
90. Ibid.
91. Zundel letter artached to blue covering note sent by a recipient
to Ben Kayfetz, p. 1, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
92. Ibid., p. 6.
93. Ibid.
94. Copy of a letter from B. G. Kaytetz to Mark Silverberg in
Edmonton, April 16,1979, in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
95. Bonokoski, "Neo-Nazi Leads Toronto Protest."
96. Friedrich and Thomson. The Hitler We Loved and Why, pp. 72.78.
97. Ibid., p. 83.
98. Ibid., pp. 77, 86.
99. Ibid., p. 116.
100. Tensrzen, "Hate Literature Factory."
101. Reproduced on a Zundel flyer, the obverse side of which bears
the Ietterhead of the "Western Unity Movement" and the inscnption
"There is a world to be conquered together, or to be lost alone," in
TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
102. Reproduced on Zundel flyer, the obverse side of which has the
letterhead of Concerned Parents of German Descent and the inscription
at the foot of it "Only the Blind Can't See," in TJC-JCRC-Zundel.
103. Second page of flyer, "Dissent Is Not Hate," etc., part of
packet attached to memo, Willmot to Silverberg, April 19, 1984, (see
above, n. 35).
104. Manuel Prutschi, "Holocaust Denial Today," in Canadian Jewry
Today: Who's Who in Canadian Jewry, ed. Edmond Y. Lipsitz (Downsvicw.
ON: J.E.S.L. Educational Product,1989), p.31.
105. Reproduced in a Zundel flyer attached to letter from Eric Murray
of Concerned Parents of German Descent to a subscriber, March 14,
1979 (see above, n. 33).
106. Tensrzen, "Hate Literature Factory."
107. Chapman, "Metro Man Branded a Nazi."
Work Cited
Prutschi, Manuel. "The Zundel Affair," in Davies, Alan, Ed.
Antisemitism in Canada: History & Interpretation. Waterloo, Ontario:
Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1992, pp. 249-277. Courtesy
Canadian Jewish Congress.

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